Educate ya!

What does Educate ya do?Educate ya focuses on the needs of the Latinx population and educates through leadership, health education, language and cultural education. This was a vision that the founder Rafael Arellano-Barrera; He saw a lack of diversity in leadership in our community and saw the need to educate how to navigate the system that is preventing latinx folks from getting into these positions of leadership. Also, there is a need for latinx folks to learn about health education because there is a lot of mis-information about it in this community so there is a health education program. There is also a youth leadership program called AVANZA, for young people interested in leadership positions in the future. There are Spanish and English classes, you can also get documents translated. There is also a few abroad programs where you can go an experience and learn from people in Mexico about different social issues in Mexico and the Latinx community as a whole.

Woodburn Health fair

My specific role: Event coordinator volunteer

I will be helping with the organization of their fundraiser events that are going to happen. I will be in charge of making phone off calls to book anything for the event and setting everything up the day of event/s. Also in charge of setting up invites to people in the public and sponsors. I will also be getting donations for events if needed, organizing any entertainment or activities that will be happening at the event as well as doing some administrative things around the office.

2015 annual Gala!

Reflection:I feel passionate about this work because I am Latina and helping my community is incredibly rewarding for me. The most I can do to help my community break down barriers so we can all be as successful as we can. The time I've had with educate ya has been so great and welcoming; it definitely has shown me how a non-profit works and It shows me how far we have come as a community and how much work we still have to do. I have been privileged in many ways and I know that many people in the Latinx community have had to struggle twice as hard as me; this is a chance for me to help someone in my community breath a little easier that day and it is an amazing feeling!